Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

If you are traveling to – or through – North Carolina, it’s easy to overlook Greensboro. With great destinations like Asheville in the west the Outer Banks in the east and Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte in the center, why bother?

But if you do overlook Greensboro, you’ll miss a thriving city and an interesting mix of old and new, conservative and trendy.

The downtown neighborhood South Elm Alliance is home to funky restaurants, shops and a unique artists cooperative.

Greensboro may not be a well-known North Carolina destination, but it is well worth a visit.

John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, author and founder of the Sierra Club, inspired congressmen and Presidents to preserve large areas in the United States, and shaped the way Americans view their relationship with the natural world.

Until age 11, when his family emigrated to the United States, the young Muir was inspired by the dramatic East Lothian coast near Dunbar, Scotland.

And an extraordinary coast it is.

We journeyed to Dunbar, not to pay tribute to Muir, but to visit our friends Ian and Anne Pilbeam. We last (and first) met Ian and Anne on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, as our families traveled round the world in opposite directions.

It was fitting that we spent the afternoon enjoying a coastal ramble along a portion of the John Muir Way, a 45-mile trail that connects Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders.

From the 7^th century, Dunbar’s harbor was protected by of one of Scotland’s mightiest castles.  During the 19^th century, the town gained a reputation as a seaside holiday resort, famous for its “bracing air.”

Today Dunbar is an affordable Edinburgh bedroom community; the capital city is just 28 miles to the west, conveniently connected by rail.

But there’s more to Dunbar than just a lovely nature walk. It is also home to the Belhaven Brewery, the oldest surviving independent brewery in Scotland.  And there’s a lot to be said for a fine Scottish ale after a long ramble in “bracing air.”

According to legend, some time during the 4^th century an Angel visited a Greek monk named Rule, the custodian of the bones of the apostle St. Andrew.  The Angel commanded Rule to carry five of the saint’s bones to the edge of the western world, where he was to build a city in his honor.

Rule set off from his home in Patras in southern Greece, carrying three of the apostle’s fingers, the upper bone of an arm, one kneecap, and one of his teeth.  As luck would have it, Rule never made it to the edge of the western world – he was shipwrecked in Scotland, just north of the Firth of Forth.

Struggling ashore with his precious cargo, St. Rule built a shrine to the saint in the town known today as St. Andrews.  In the process, St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland.

Visitors climb St. Rule’s Tower for commanding views of the town, while the faithful journey to the spot where the relics of  Jesus’ first apostle were once brought for safekeeping.

The faithful of another sort make pilgrimages to the place known round the world as “the home of golf.” One of golf’s patron saints lies in the cathedral graveyard, no more than a short wedge shot from where Rule brought St. Andrew’s bones.

Old Tom Morris was the famed first greenskeeper at The Old Course – but it was his son who was the Tiger Woods of his day. Young Tom Morris was the first to have the title of “the best golfer in the world.”

Young Tom won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870, and 1872. (There was no tournament held in 1871). No one else has since repeated this feat of winning four straight Opens.

Unfortunately, Young Tom met an early and tragic end.  He was playing in a golf match at nearby North Berwick when a telegram arrived from home requesting his immediate return – his pregnant wife had gone into a difficult labor.

His friends withheld the news from him until the golf match was over, and when he learned of his wife’s condition, he rushed home by ship. But when Young Tom finally arrived after a rough passage, he learned that his wife and newborn baby had both died.

Four months later, on Christmas Day, Young Tom died of a broken heart. He was 24 years old.

There are more pictures of St. Andrews here.

The hottest July on record came to a close last week, and as climate change deniers continue to ignore the obvious, I thought of two very real examples of the impact of global warming.

On the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Franz Josef Glacier (pictured above) has retreated several kilometers since the 1840s, a distance made all the more real because of the hike along the valley floor to the face of the glacier. About 150 years ago, the glacier covered the spot where tourists park today.

One hundred years ago Franz Josef Glacier filled this valley.

Our experience in New Zealand confirmed what we has seen in South America.  We first witnessed the impact of global warming when we visited Cotopaxi in Ecuador.

Our indigenas tour guide described the impact to the local ecosystem and showed us the spot on the mountain where the snow line once was. Today mountain bikers begin their decent of the mountain from a spot once covered year round by snow and ice.

The day we visited Cotopaxi our tour guide asked a simple question.  At the time I wondered if she was asking about the climate — or human behavior.

“How does it change?,” she asked.

South Beach (a.k.a. SoBe) in Miami Beach, Florida, wasn’t always a playground for the rich and famous. One hundred years ago the area’s original developers envisioned a mid-sized ocean front city of modest single family homes.

Today, not so much.

The 1920s real estate bubble attracted millionaires and speculators.  The 1930s brought an architectural Art Deco revolution, a development trend that gives the city it’s character and sense of place today.

But it was TV that really put South Beach on the map: The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1960s, later Crockett and Tubbs solving crimes in Miami Vice.

Today, South Beach is one of the U.S.’s most international destinations:  English is the first language of only 33% of the residents.

In 2009 Natalie O’Neill of the Miami New Times commented: “Until the 1980s, Miami Beach was a peculiar mix of criminals, Cubans, and little old ladies. Then the beautiful people moved in.”

There are more pictures from Miami Beach here.

As usual, California leads the nation.  The good citizens of the Golden State have discovered a nefarious plot by the communist Chinese to infiltrate our schools and brainwash our children.  It works like this.

The Confucius Institute, a non-profit funded by the Chinese government, is supplying a language and culture curriculum for U.S. middle schools. Sure, cash-strapped schools get free lesson plans and materials to help students study Chinese – but what’s the real price?

Fortunately, the ever-alert citizens of Hacienda Heights, California, have recognized this program for what it is: A communist plot to brainwash our children.

Jon Stewart, America’s best journalist, produced this expose explaining it all.

Meanwhile, all Americans are warned to avoid Chinese food, Chinese laundries, and yes, Chinese checkers.  All could lead to communist sympathies.

Remember, the Department of Homeland Security wants you to know the threat level is orange.

Meanwhile, avoid looking at these pictures of those involved in the communist plot:

There are more pictures of Beijing here. (View them at your own risk).

Not that long ago, on February 27, 2010, a massive earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter Scale rocked the Chilean coast south of Santiago.  Since then, public awareness has shifted to dozens of other problems, other tragedies.

The Chilean government has estimated it may take 3-4 years to completely recover and rebuild. But that doesn’t mean travelers should stay away from Santiago, a stylish gateway to a beautiful country.

You can read about up-to-date travel conditions in Chile on this blog.

With oil bearing down on the remarkable white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle, we hopped a Southwest flight to the newly opened Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City Beach.

Two and a half hours after we left BWI, we pulled in to Seaside, Florida, a place many recognize as the location where The Truman Show was filmed.  In fact, Seaside is famous for another reason:  It is considered one of the best examples of New Urbanism anywhere in the world.  Time called it “the most astounding design achievement of its era and, one might hope, the most influential.”

An unspeakable tragedy is unfolding in slow-motion along the Gulf Coast, and if black tar washes up on Northwest Florida’s pristine white sand beaches, we will have done damage to a very special place.

There are more pictures of Seaside and Northwest Florida here.

According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying “in front of the Pillars of Hercules.” The city-state conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC.

After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune.”

The Atlantis of legend is intriguing.  Today’s reality is more pedestrian, if no more fantastical: It’s become a pair of over-the-top resorts, one in the Bahamas, the other in Dubai.

There are more pictures of Atlantis here.